A poem about The God Particle

July 11, 2012

You may still be confused about the origins of the Higgs boson, but performer Piero Procaccini has it down and he's written a spoken-word paen to the so-called "God Particle." Read an excerpt below or listen above:

There’s a tale to be told of a turbulent time,

But the lesson to learn borders on the sublime,

And so let us begin with a bang, so to speak,

Then skip more than ten billion years plus half a week.

To the end of the day at the end of a bar,

It does not matter where, only know it’s not far.

There the bartender stood, with a rag in his fist,

And a smirk on his face that he could not resist,

For at that very moment, the front door swung wide,

And a woman escaped from the heat from outside.

And she pulled up a stool and she ordered a drink,

And he stared for a moment then gave her a wink.

“See the paper today?” he inquired with delight

And she knew, in that instant, he wanted a fight.

“Yes, I did,” she replied as she tried not to cuss.

“Is there something you saw that you’d like to discuss?”

“You’re the scientist, aren’t you?” His words dripped with scorn.

“Always trying to prove there’s no God, I’d have sworn.”

“Well that isn’t quite fair,” she began her reply,

“Science seeks to uncover the ‘how’ more than ‘why.’

We test out our theories,” she said with calm pauses.

“To understand Nature through natural causes.

And no matter how loudly that someone insists.

We lay no claim to whether or not God exists.”

“That’s not true – not today!” his response, so unwarm.

“There is proof God exists now in particle form.”

“Oh, is that why you’re smiling?” she laughed, “That’s no bigs.”

The God Particle’s really a boson called Higgs.”

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